But the Ammonite king disregarded the message sent by Jephthah.

And the spirit of Jehovah will be upon Jephthah, and he will pass through Gilead and Manasseh, and he will pass through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the sons of Ammon.

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD'S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

And he will strike them from Aroer even to thy going to Minnith, twenty cities, and even to the meadow of the vineyards, with a very great smiting. And the sons of Ammon will be subdued from the face of the sons of Israel.

And the moment he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Ah! My daughter, you have caused me to bow down, and you have become my trouble. {I made an oath} to Yahweh, and I cannot take [it] back."

And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.

And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel,

that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

So when I saw that there was no help to be had from you, I put my life in my hand and went over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hands: why then have you come up to me this day to make war on me?

And Jephthah will judge Israel six years: and Jephthah the Gileadite will die, and will be buried in the city of Gilead.

He had thirty sons. He arranged for thirty of his daughters to be married outside his extended family, and he arranged for thirty young women to be brought from outside as wives for his sons. Ibzan led Israel for seven years;

And Ibzan will die, and will be buried in the House of Bread.

And Elon the Zebulonite will die and will be buried in Elon in the land of Zebulon.

And there will be to him forty sons and thirty sons' sons riding upon seventy young asses: and he will judge Israel eight years.

And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite, will die, and will be buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekite.

Some time later, the Israelis again practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, so the LORD handed them over into the domination of the Philistines for 40 years.

And there will be one man from Zorah from the families of the Danites, and his name Manoah; and his wife sterile, and she bare not

And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son.

So then, be careful and do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean,

For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me and his appearance was like the appearance of the Angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask Him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass: what shall be the ordering of the child, and how'shall we do unto him?

And the angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Let the woman be attentive to all that I said.

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord.

And it will be in the going up of the flame from the altar to the heavens, and the messenger of Jehovah will go up in the flame of the altar and Manoah and his wife seeing; and they will fall upon their face to the earth.

But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord.

And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

And the woman bore a son, and called his name Samson; and the boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.

And the spirit of the LORD began first to be with the house of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

And he will go down and speak to the woman, and she will be right in the eyes of Samson.

And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

And if ye shall not be able to announce to me, and ye give me thirty wide garments and thirty exchanges of garments: and they will say to him, Propose thine enigma and we will hear it.

So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Get from your husband the answer to his question by some trick or other, or we will have you and your father's house burned with fire; did you get us here to take all we have?

Then Samson's wife wept unto him and said, "It cannot be but that thou hatest me and lovest me not: for thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my folk and wilt not tell me what it meaneth." And he said, "Behold, I have not told it my father, nor my mother, and should I tell it thee?"

And she will weep upon him seven days which were to them of the drinking: and it will be in the seventh day, and he will announce to her, for she urged him: and she will announce the enigma to the sons of her people.

And Samson's wife will be to his companion who was friend to him.

And it will be after days in days of the wheat harvest, and Samson will look after his wife with a kid of the goats; and he will say, I will go to my wife to the chamber. And her father gave him not to go in.

and her father saith, I certainly said, that thou didst certainly hate her, and I give her to thy companion; is not her sister -- the young one -- better than she? Let her be, I pray thee, to thee, instead of her.'

And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

Samson went and captured three hundred jackals and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair.

And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

And Philisteim will go up and encamp against Judah and will be dispersed in Lehi.

So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?”

They replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he did to us.”

When Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, so that the ropes that bound him were like flax that's been burned by fire, and his bonds dissolved.

And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead, which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a thousand men with it.

And it will be when he finished to speak, and he will cast away the jawbone from his hand, and he will call that place, the lifting up the jaw-bone.

And he was sore athirst, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come hither. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, Let be till morning light, then we will kill him.

And it will be after this, and he will love a woman in the valley of Shorek, and her name Delilah.

And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.

And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

So the chiefs of the Philistines gave her seven new bow-cords which had never been made dry, and she had them tightly knotted round him.

Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound.

And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.

And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.

And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.

And it will be in her pressing upon him with her words all the days, and she will urge him, and his soul will be shortened to death;

That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a rasor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.

And Philisteim will seize him, and they will bore out his eyes, and will bring him down to Gaza and bind him with fetters of brass, and he will be grinding in the house of bonds.

And the chiefs of the Philistines came together to make a great offering to Dagon their god, and to be glad; for they said, Our god has given into our hands Samson our hater.

And it will be when their heart will be joyful, and they will say, Call to Samson, and he shall play to us. And they will call to Samson from the house of bonds and he will play before them, and they will set him between the pillars.

And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.

And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

Samson took hold of the two middle [support] pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.

And Samson said, Let death overtake me with the Philistines. And he put out all his strength, and the house came down on the chiefs and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he sent to destruction by his death were more than all those on whom he had sent destruction in his life.

And there will be a man of mount Ephraim and his name Micah.

And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.

When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, "I solemnly dedicate this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son's benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image."

And he will turn back the silver to his mother; and his mother will take two hundred of silver and will give it to the goldsmith, and he will make it a carved thing and molten: and it will be in the house of Micah.

This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.

In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.

A young male descendant of Levi happened to be visiting there from Bethlehem in the territory of Judah.

And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in.

And the Levite will be willing to dwell with the man; and the youth will be to him as one of his sons.

And Micah will fill the hand of the Levite; and the youth will be to him for a priest, and he will be in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will favor me and make me prosper because I have a Levite as my priest.”

In those days there is no king in Israel, and in those days the tribe of the Danite is seeking for itself an inheritance to inhabit, for that hath not fallen to it unto that day in the midst of the tribes of Israel by inheritance.

When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

And he said unto them, "Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me and hath hired me to be his priest."

And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

And the priest said to them, Go in peace: your way is guided by the Lord.

And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.

When ye be come, ye shall come unto a people that casteth no perils, and unto a large country: for God hath given into your hands a place wherein is no lack of anything that is in the world."

And the six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate.

And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

And the priest's heart will be joyous, and he will take the ephod, and the teraphim, and the carved thing, and will go in the midst of the people.

When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses that were by Micah's house, made an outcry, and followed after the children of Dan and called unto them.

And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household.

And they have taken that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and come in against Laish, against a people quiet and confident, and smite them by the mouth of the sword, and the city have burnt with fire,

And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and dwelt therein.

and call the name of the city Dan, by the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; and yet Laish is the name of the city at the first.

And it will be in those days, and no king in Israel; and it will be a man, a Levite, sojourning in the sides of mount Ephraim, and he will take to him a wife, a concubine, from the House of Bread, of Judah.

And his concubine will commit fornication against him, and she will go from him to the house of her father, to the House of Bread, of Judah, and she will be there the days of four months.